Adele, Foo Fighters the big winners at 54th Grammy Awards

With the showbiz community in Los Angeles still reeling from the death of Whitney Houston, the 54th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, held last night at the Staples Center in Downtown LA, was inevitably tinged with sadness.

"There is no way around this, we've had a death in our family," said host LL Cool J before leading a prayer in Houston's honour and getting proceedings underway.

British singer Adele scooped six awards in total, including Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year for Rolling in The Deep, and Album Of The Year for 21.

21 producer Paul Epworth was named Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical for his work with Adele, Foster The People and Cee Lo Green.

Foo Fighters were the big stars across the rock categories, winning five out of the six Grammys that they were nominated for, including Best Rock Album for Wasting Light and Best Rock Song for Walk.

Amy Winehouse received a posthumous award in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for her collaboration with Tony Bennett, while Bon Iver beat off stiff competition to win both Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album.

The night's most-nominated artist, Kanye West, failed to attend the ceremony, but won four honours including Best Rap Album for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Best Rap Performance (shared with Jay-Z) for Otis.